Nikolai Gogol The Overcoat
The Overcoat is a darkly comic, live action short film about a man who, in a desperate attempt for popularity and social acceptance, spends all his money on a brand new overcoat.But when it is stolen from him and he returns to his previous anonymity, he spirals out of control and not even death can stop him desperately trying to retrieve his stolen overcoat.With a fantastic cast that includes Jason Watkins, Tim Key, Vicki Pepperdine, Alex Macqueen and Dominic Coleman, we hope to make a film that is funny, dark, visually exciting and does justice to Gogol’s original tragicomic fairytale. An unseen narrator introduces our hero, Christopher Cobbler, who is a lonely, eccentric man working as a proof reader in a massive, faceless government building, where he is mercilessly mocked by his colleagues.In an effort to raise his status, he scrimps and saves to buy a brand new overcoat, which has the desired effect and he is invited to an office party.
But after one too many drinks, he is mugged on the way home and his prized new overcoat is stolen.Desperate to recover it, and after no help from the police, Christopher goes to a VIP in the government to demand help, but the VIP’s angry reaction sends Christopher into a hallucinatory fever from which he cannot recover, and he dies soon after.But Christopher returns to haunt the VIP, and indeed the city, forever stalking the night looking for his overcoat. The narrator is finally revealed as a man telling Christopher’s story to his friends in the pub, but as the narrator leaves, he has a very real encounter with the ghostly Christopher. Like all great works of literature, Gogol's original short story means many different things to many different people. Our adaptation focuses on themes like societal oppression, loneliness, social status and accepting one's individuality.
Excellent question. I guess you should back it if you, like everyone who is working on it, are interested in the premise, the themes we're trying to explore, the strange world in which the story is set, admire the brilliant cast who are in it, or perhaps you know the original short story or other work from Gogol, or perhaps you've helped bring filmmakers complete a film before and enjoy the sense that you've been an integral part of the process of bringing an idea to life on the screen.But most of all, we think you should back it if it sounds and looks like the kind of film you would want to see.
As the film is in the can, the vast majority of funding raised through this campaign will go on post-production, with the remainder on mastering, distribution/marketing and festival applications. The funding for the prep and production of the film has already been raised through the age-old independent filmmaking tactic of begging, borrowing and stealing everything from actors to cameras to locations to catering to costumes. But unfortunately post production houses generally don’t look kindly on vagrant filmmakers’ sob stories.Therefore, we need the funds to spend on an Avid suite, the editor, the VFX editor, the animator, a Da Vinci suite for the grade, the colourist, the sound designer, the sound mixer, the composer, recording music, licensing music and the titles/credit sequences.
And beyond that, there’s the mastering, the submission fees of all the big festivals, copies for screening and distribution, and finally, if there’s anything left over, the marketing and publicity.Below are two helpful pie charts which should clarify things further. The first piechart shows the total budget breakdown of the entire film, while the second piechart shows the breakdown of the post production budget. Risks and challengesAs the film has already been made, we have already overcome a lot of the more obvious filmmaking risks and challenges. However, that's not to say we're out of the woods yet, and we must be wary of unseen or escalating post production costs which might rear their ugly heads. Other risks and challenges include possible delays with the availability of post production talent (being a low budget independent short film, people tend to work shorts in between bigger, better paid gigs) and the availability of resources for our budget and timeline.Saying that, our combined experience of seeing through creative projects to the very end, meeting and overcoming untold risks and challenges along the way, puts us in good stead to preempt any such obstacles and be prepared for when they come along. Our contacts within film also mean that we can try and allay any unexpected costs or delays by choosing the right people and the right post facilities to make sure the completion of the film is not unduly delayed or runs over budget.
Tim Key spins his own surreal tale of one of Russian fiction's greatest short stories, whilst contending with his own filthy disgrace of a jacket. With contributions from Alexei Sayle and John Motson.Tim Key - poet, comedian, and crumpled polymath - is obsessed with Nikolai Gogol's short story 'The Overcoat'. Written in 1842, it's a fable of a simple clerk, Akakiy Akakievich, whose desire for a new coat to keep the St Petersburg winter at bay forever changes his life.and ultimately destroys him.Its author - the enigmatic Ukrainian-born writer Nikolai Gogol - is one of Tim's idols. In this deceptively simple yet utterly surreal tale, Gogol spins webs around the reader, foxing them with an unreliable narrator, blending stark realism with the eye-poppingly fantastical, and constantly deconstructing and undercutting the story of poor Akaky Akakievich with his own running commentary.More than 150 years on, no-one, it seems, quite knows what The Overcoat is really about. Is it a dark satire on the powerlessness of the individual and the tyranny of totalitarian governments? A fantastical, proto-Dadaist fable of devils, toenails and ghostly goings-on?
Nikolai Gogol Biography
Or a deeply realist moral message to be kind to the poorest in our society?Tim's off to find out what - if anything - Gogol's mysterious story can tell us.and why The Overcoat feels even more relevant in the 21st century. Is this fable the seed of alternative comedy? Should more of us pay heed to this bizarre morality tale? And above all, isn't it about time Tim replaced his own filthy disgrace of a coat?Fact blends with surreal fantasy, as Tim gets sidetracked, Gogol-style, into his own private coat Hades.Featuring contributions from Russian experts Donald Rayfield, Maria Rubins and Konstantin von Eggert - plus East End tailor and Master Cutter Clive Phythian, 'father of alternative comedy' Alexei Sayle, and football commentator and sheepskin coat-wearing icon John Motson. Legendary radio maker Piers Plowright recommends Tim Key and Gogol's Overcoat:'Writer and comedian Tim Key explores Russia’s craziest novel, NikolaiGogol’s Overcoat, with the help of a couple of scholars, a tailor, arag-trader, some mad music, and his own overcoat.' A perfectly crafted documentary whose style imitates exactly the surreal absurdity of its subject.'
It’sanarchic, unsettling, surprising, and very, very, funny. Key is aninspired presenter because he’s inside the story, not to mention theovercoat. Download free marvel strategy game expansions. Listening to this programme the listener feels liberated fromthe usual constraints of logic as well as any rules that may havesettled like dust over the way documentaries are usually made. And youlearn a lot. A small masterpiece.'